The Seer (Chapter 07)

Something bad is going to happen today, Charlie whispered to me. He was in a habit of whispering because I was the only one who knew that he could see things in the future. Today, however, there was no reason for him to whisper, because just the two of us were there. We were hunting pheasants on my dad's alfalfa field down by the Black Hills, a couple of miles out of town. When I pointed out to him that there was nobody around to hear him, he still kept talking in a low voice, not wanting to scare the pheasants, he said. He had already bagged one nice rooster. I had missed one. There were deer that lived year-round on those hills, and came down and fed in those alfalfa fields at night, but I didn't know that until many years later. We always went up on Cove Mountain for our deer hunting. Something bad, huh? How bad will it be? I have to sit down. Everything is kind of fuzzy, Charlie said. He sat down in the tall grass of the ditch bank and I sat down across from him. The ditch was only about two feet deep and three feet wide. There was no water in it. Charlie sat there for a long time without saying anything more, just kind of staring out into space. Finally he said, Somebody is going to get shot. Somebody important. A king or president of some country. I waited for Charlie to say more, but he began staring out into space again. I had a hard time being patient, but I knew I shouldn't interrupt his vision or whatever it was. The pheasant didn't know that. A huge rooster flushed out, almost right under our feet, and took off in a flurry of drumming wings and a couple of anxious calls. I was so startled I couldn't get my Mossberg 16 gauge up to my shoulder before the bird was too far away. Charlie had not fired a shot either. I looked over at him and he had a blank look on his face. His trance had been interrupted, but I don't think he even knew that it had been a pheasant that had brought him out of it. There are at least six men involved in the planning of this murder, he said. One of them is going to get caught and blamed for the whole thing. Then they will kill him before he ever goes to trial! Who are they planning to kill, Charlie? Maybe we can warn him somehow! I'm afraid it's too late for that. It has already happened, somewhere in Texas. What world leader is visiting Texas today? Neither of us had any idea. Charlie told me that he had seen a little bit more. There were three shooters. One was in a big building and another was on the top of a grassy knoll. There was a parade, and the killing had happened at a spot where the parade passed the first two shooters. The third shooter was actually one of the motorcycle cops in the motorcade, should the other two fail. Charlie couldn't tell me any more, and it was starting to get dark. I suggested we start to walk back to town, and Charlie had no problem with that suggestion. It was November 22,1963. to be continued...